Wednesday, December 8, 2010

CAIRO, Sept 25 (KUNA) -- The Egyptian authorities started Saturday clearing the Straits of Tiran, northeast the Red Sea, of dead sheep thrown into the sea by a cargo vessel recently.

The move aims to prevent the carcasses being drifted towards the tourist resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, at the southernmost tip of Sinai Peninsula, Minister of State for Environment Affairs Eng. Majed George told reporters here.

"We have contacts managers of all hotels of the city, which overlook the straits, as well as the nature reserves there to inform them of the problem and coordinate steps in this regard," the minister pointed out.

"Reacting promptly to complaints from some hotels in the area, the operation room of the crisis-management unit adopted measures to retrieve the carcasses and bury them at an ecologically-safe site," George said.

"Measures are underway to assess the environment damage and sue the owner of the vessel Badr 3," he disclosed adding that a survey of the area showed 33 carcasses scattered off Ras Mohammad National Park.

Boats belonging to the Ministry of Environment and vehicles of the South Sinai Governorate take part in the clearing campaign.

The ship, owned by an Australian company and carrying The Bahamas flag, was reportedly carrying 120,000 heads of sheep when the accident took place.

This is a dynamic map of the region, you can zoom in and move around the area for a better view:

What is not being discussed are the numerous eyewitness reports of dead farm animals floating in local waters prior to the attacks. The animals were first sighted in the Tiran Strait off Tiran Island (top right of image) with reports of a commercial vessel dumping dead animals at sea.

At least two eye witness reports say that dead sheep washed onshore during the preceding week not far from where the first attacks took place. What is absolutely sure, looking at the facts through a commercial shark diving lens, is that something caused a normally curious and manageable shark population to suddenly "turn on".

A floating train of large dead farm animals with sharks feasting on these remains in the days prior to encounters with swimmers, might be the trigger.

We decided to explore the "theory" that dead animals dumped at sea off Tiran Island could in fact end up close to shore off SharmelShiekh. We asked John Amos from Sky Truth to review satellite data from the region to see if wind and current could move dead animals, floating on the surface, in the right direction. The answer was yes, theoretically animals dumped in the Trian Strait might end up in the most populated regions off the coastline off Shark elShiekh.

The first step in proving the dead farm animal theory is done. The next step would be to track back the offending vessel by reviewing cargo manifests of all vessels in the region during the preceding two weeks to see if any were:

1. In the Tiran Straits

2. Had a cargo of sheep and perhaps cows

The notion that commercial diving operations could radically alter sharks normal cautionary behaviour towards swimmers and divers with some basic chumming has been put forward by those with little to no experience with sharks. In short, this kind of shark behavior has never happened during past chumming efforts by local dive operations, so why would it now?

The animals who encountered surface swimmers in and around SharmelShiekh were in full predation mode, the unfortunate loss of an arm and leg to a 70 year old German swimmer is testament to animals that were recently accustomed to large volume surface feedings.

These were not frenzied animals as has been suggested by the main stream media, rather, these were conditioned animals.

We're leaning towards the theory that multiple sheep and perhaps a cow carcass, bloated by the sun, and floating in a current and wind driven southbound train, was followed and consumed by a number of Oceanic Whitetips (Carcharhinuslongimanus), and Makos (Isurusoxyrinchus) which is absolutely normal for these species. This carcass train eventually found it's way closer to heavily populated areas off SharmelShiekh with the now conditioned sharks in tow. When these sharks, in full predation mode, encountered swimmers, normal cautionary behavior sets towards unknown objects in the water had been turned off.

The results?

An unprecedented series of attacks on swimmers and an ensuing media frenzy.

The facts about this case need to be known as it's impacts are already being felt worldwide. Our industry will have to remain vigilant against theories put forward by non-industry members who see sharks though a 1970's era lens of frenzied or rouge animals. .

Hopefully the shark attack specialists who are now in SharmelShiekh will find the answers.